


A Smoother Blend

by ElectraRhodes



Series: Delighting in Your Radiance 2017 [2]
Category: Hannibal (TV), Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: A little bit of sympathetic magic might have crept in, Case Fic, HannibalHallow, Hannigram - Freeform, M/M, Potions, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, all in one, coffee shop AU, fake date, you betcha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 15:35:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12302175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElectraRhodes/pseuds/ElectraRhodes
Summary: 'Will glances at Jack before going back to alternating between scratching at his mark and wishing he could go home. Soon. He’s tired. He might be bored. And he definitely is out of dog food which is going to cause no end of a fight when he gets home. Soul-mate zero. Dogs seven. Which according to Jimmy explains the whole no soul-mate thing. He whines, mostly just to say something, so they can wrap this up,“At least she doesn’t blame the victims! Some journalists would. But she’s been even handed and surprisingly un-bitchy about it!”Everyone stares at Will, and Brian, being only a bit of a jerk, gives a slow hand-clap,“Will Graham in ‘does not hate Freddie Lounds shock’!”





	A Smoother Blend

**Author's Note:**

  * For [intotheruins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/intotheruins/gifts).



> The second of fifteen (omgg) new stories for those wonderful people who backed the Radiance Kickstarter 'Delight' Level. Thank you!! The stories are all linked, so if you fancy it you can subscribe to the whole series and as each one posts they'll just turn up in your in-box! Easy. 
> 
> There's a range of styles (fluff, humour, horror, fantasy, and trope), seasons (1,2,3 and post TWOTL, and SOTL too), canon compliant and AU (can we say coffee shop?), favourites (souls marks, ABO), and lots of wonderful characters (at least two Wendigos). 
> 
> Each backer bid for a minimum of 1000 words of fic. Of course the prompts are just too good to only give them 1000 words. Bring the noise! This one has six chapters.
> 
> Based off a wonderful prompt from Into the Ruins... fantastic job my friend. Just fantastic. I hope I do it justice.

“Freddie Lounds is calling him ‘The Flirter’.”

The team groan as one and Brian bristles in his chair,

“Since when did we let Freddie sodding Lounds start telling us what we call our killers Jack? I thought he was 'the Cup-Cake Killer?”

Agent Crawford makes a ‘yeah whatever’ face as though he’s very few fucks left to give about it.

“Yeah? Thanks for the input Zee. So, six dead barristas. Take us through it Will.”

Will scratches absently at his mark, just above his wrist bone, it has been itching lately and the skin around is starting to look scraped and raw. He tries to focus.

“Ok. So, six guys. Different shops, all independents, no one from any of the chains, which is a shame as it means they’re all too small to have surveillance cameras, and he’s running at two week intervals. We thought it was longer, but we missed one. No sign of escalation. And the owners and the guys’ colleagues didn’t notice anything odd in the weeks before.”

Bev interjects,

“What nothing? No new customer? No New delivery people? No one?”

Will shrugs,

“You’ve seen the reports. Nothing and no one stands out.”

She grimaces,

“And from the scenes? Anything in particular Will?”

Will sighs and scratches again at his mark. All the others in the team have met their soul-mates. Rather hilariously it had turned out that Zeller and Price were a 100% match, though it took a while for them both to admit it. Jimmy worrying about the age difference. Brian worrying that Jimmy was pretty much on the extreme side of high maintenance. But Will hasn’t, and that makes him unusual in law enforcement more widely. That and the whole ‘thing’ he does.

“Right. Yeah. The scenes. They’re all single souls. And. Well. They all flirted. Each one of them had at least one colleague or their boss say their guy was a flirt. Not a letch or a shit about it but definitely flirty. With men and women, everyone. Didn’t matter about age or ethnicity or any other thing. They flirted. No one said they thought their employee followed through, just that they were flirty. In their day to day work.”

Jack huffs,

“Shame their colleagues couldn’t keep that to themselves. Freddie loves it. That and the un-souled.”

Will glances at him before going back to alternating between scratching at his mark and wishing he could go home. Soon. He’s tired. He might be bored. And he definitely is out of dog food which is going to cause no end of a fight when he gets home. Soul-mate Zero. Dogs seven. Which according to Jimmy explains the whole no soul-mate thing. He whines, mostly just to say something, so they can wrap this up,

“At least she doesn’t blame the victims! Some journalists would. But she’s been even handed and surprisingly un-bitchy about it!”

Everyone stares at Will, and Brian, being only a bit of a jerk, gives a slow hand-clap,

“Will Graham in ‘does not hate Freddie Lounds shock’!”

Will rolls his eyes. Jack weighs in, keen for it not to deteriorate further.

“Yeah all right. Freddie’s a saint. So. Next steps. We've got the OIG breathing down our necks and I want to get on with it. Right?”

The team is a bit slow to respond so Jack leans forwards across his desk towards everyone,

“Right?”

They nod then and Jimmy tries for meek when he asks,

“We hear you boss. So, what’s the plan?”

Jack looks a teeny bit mollified and smiles benevolently at Jimmy, Bev rolls her eyes and Will has to stifle a snort when she catches his look and pulls a face.

“So. Simple plan. We’re going to have teams of people, different shops, some on their own, some in couples, some clearly just with a friend or colleague. And we’re going to get people to flirt. With the barristas, maybe with other patrons, with each other. Something sets the guy off. It could be something the barrista does; responds to someone flirting or not flirting, the way they treat other people who flirt. Something like that.”

The team look mildly horrified.

“But that could take ages! And how many shops are we talking about? I know down-town Baltimore isn’t Seattle but really!”

Jack stares at Brian,

“You got a better idea? There are thirteen independent shops. We’re almost lucky with that, the rest are all chains. We’ll get cctv rigged in all of them. Each team or pair or individual will go back several times over a three week period and hopefully, just hopefully something will snag! And I know its labour intensive. We’ve got interns and trainees from the academy all over this. It’s not perfect but it’s the best we can do. Right?”

There’s a certain amount of grumbling but maybe it is the best they can do. Will sighs some more. He doesn’t even really like coffee. Though he sees a fair amount of it in his future.

.................................

What he didn’t see in his future was that Jack had decided some kind of retribution is in hand because he pairs Brian and Will as a couple for their bit of the surveillance gig. They both object.

“No offence Will but I'm going nowhere with you if you wear that fishing gillet thing. That’s disgusting. It isn’t even clean.”

“Dr Bloom didn’t object last time I wore it.”

His lab team mates look at him, they all know how that turned out.

“Yeah ok. Maybe not the best example. But it’s comfortable all right. And practical. God Zee, you’re so prissy. Jimmy is really rubbing off on you.”

Jimmy does nothing and says nothing, simply looks beyond pleased at Will’s assessment. Brian tries again,

“All right. Wear the damn thing. We can argue about it in the shop. See if that’s what gets the guy's goat. Some barrista interfering. Jack? You didn’t say, are we telling people about the operation?”

Jack manages to look both shifty and determined, quite a feat thinks Will.

“No and yes. We’ve told people about the cctv. Had to really. But not so much about the op. We cant have anyone acting out of character. Especially if our guy is a regular around all the shops.”

There’s some logic in this so Brian settles down a bit. Will makes a small face to himself, scratches at his mark,

“So, Brian and me, on a date. Fantastic. Can’t one of us do a set up visit. Just to scope it out. Might be doubly effective if our guy is there and sees one of us be friendly with the staff and then brings along a date the next visit. Yeah? Might annoy them some?”

Jack nods slowly,

“All right. Good idea. Let’s see if we can get all the variables. Will you go in tomorrow. And roll it out from there.”

Will tries a small protest but Jack just gives him a look. And that’s how he find himself in a small coffee shop the following morning smiling at a nice and cheerful barrista as he asks for a tea.

“I know its a coffee shop, but I’m not that wild about coffee. I wondered if you’d do me a tea. Maybe a chai latte or something? With soy?”

The man behind the counter smiles,

“Its all right. We carry tea as well. Chai latte? Of course? Cinnamon?”

Will nods absently as he looks around, eight or so tables, nice big glass window, quite a few customers lingering over their drinks and the free wifi, he looks back at the server.

“Thanks. Sorry. Nice place here.”

The man smiles and says,

“That’s kind. It’s a competitive market, but we like to think we’re holding our own.”

Will has just a moment to think of something deeply inappropriate, attracted by the man’s voice, his tone, his accent. His deft handling of the order as he steams the milk, adds some spices to a strainer and then lets the whole thing steep. 

Will pulls himself back into the moment and fishes in his jacket pocket for his coin purse. He sorts through the change, finds the right money and hands it over. And just for a moment his fingers brush the palm of the other man. His soul-mark bursts into a bright momentary intense feeling of flame, and heat, and home. The server makes a small surprised noise and they look at each other sharply; and Will just thinks,

Really? In a coffee-shop? Damn.


End file.
